SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government will make public the contents of the water agreement it signed with the federal government next week as promised, Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said today.

Khalid said the Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Maximus Ongkili had agreed in principle for Selangor to make the memorandum public.

He said the state had to undergo certain procedures as required under its Freedom of Information Act before the document could be released.

He, however, declined to confirm the authenticity of a MoU document revealed by PKR strategist Rafizi Ramli yesterday, adding that the state did not approve the release of the said document.

"We are only interested in releasing our own documents," he said Khalid indirectly dismissed Rafizi's claims that only a number of items in the MoU, such as the Langat II Water Treatment Plant, were irrevocable.

"The decision has been made by the state, you (reporters) should read the whole document," he told a press conference after the weekly executive council meeting.

He said the signing of the MoU had nothing to do with his recent out-of-court settlement with Bank Islam on a shares dispute worth RM67 million.

He also refused to name the PKR leader whom he had claimed might wish to alter the water deal if the person knew about the deal earlier.

No water increase for three years

Selangor inked the MoU with Putrajaya last Wednesday to allow the federal government to build the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plan in exchange for the state to take over four water concessionaires.

The MoU marked the end of six years of intensive horse-trading between the two sides since Selangor announced its intention to restructure the state's water industry and assets.

Many Selangor PKR leaders, such as Rafizi and Anwar Ibrahim, were, however, kept in dark over the MoU and had since been questioning the deal.

Khalid said last Saturday that the contents of the MoU was irrevocable and binding, as he had specifically asked for the word "irrevocable" to be written in there.

Meanwhile, Khalid also announced that the federal and state governments had agreed to sign a yet-to-be-drafted agreement which would detail the plan of the water restructuring exercise.

He said the proposed agreement would eleborate on issues such as future water tariffs and estimated revenue after the exercise.

He added that the proposed agreement stated that there would be no increase in water tariff for the next three years.

KUALA LUMPUR: Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) said today it had yet to receive any directive from the Selangor government to implement the third stage of water rationing necessitated by the current drought.

Syabas Corporate Communications and Public Affairs assistant general manager Priscilla Alfred said there would no change to the second stage of the water rationing.

The second stage started on Sunday following a reduction by 200 million litres a day in the release of raw water from the Sungai Selangor Dam.

In a portal yesterday, Selangor state executive councillor Elizabeth Wong stated that the people of Selangor must prepare themselves to face the third phase of rationing if the level of water in the Klang Gates Dam continued to drop.

She said the third stage of rationing would involve more consumers, including people living in the Ampang and Melawati areas.

Wong was quoted as saying that as of yesterday the water at the dam was at 52.91% capacity.She said the situation would be declared as critical if the level dropped to 50%, which would force the implementation of the third phase of water rationing.

Priscilla, asked to comment on the complaints by consumers that they received muddy water upon resumption of the water supply each time, said it was caused by sediments in the Syabas mains system.

"It is definitely an issue, but it only happens to consumers in certain areas. As such, we urge the affected consumers to let the water flow for a few minutes before using it, because it is unsafe for use," she said.

The second stage of water rationing, involving 260 areas with 413,617 households, entered its fourth day today.

I refer to the appeal of the Fitnah II case by the BN government against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on 6 &7 March 2014.

We are disturbed by the unusual haste in which the March 6 &7 dates have been fixed.

The appeal had been fixed for case management on 28.2.2014. Anwar’s lawyers then received a call from the deputy registrar of the Court of Appeal (CoA) asking for free dates between March 7 and March 10, 2014. It should be noted that the dates insisted upon by the CoA are on the eve of the nomination day for the Kajang by-election. ( If Anwar is convicted, he would be disqualified from contesting the by election.)

On 28 February 2014, the court insisted on fixing March 6 &7 as the appeal dates. The dates were fixed despite Anwar’s lawyers stating that those are not their free dates. Why was the CoA in such a hurry to fix these dates?

More surprisingly, the CoA had on 12 Feb had allowed a stay of the Fitnah II appeal pending disposal of Anwar’s appeal to Federal Court on the application for Judy Pereira to be recalled.

Having granted the stay, why did the CoA rush to fix the appeal dates even before the Judy Pereira appeal was heard?

In fact, Anwar had up to 6 March to file his petition of appeal for the Judy Pereira appeal to the Federal Court. However in a highly unusual move, Shafee Abdullah filed an application to strike out the Judy Pereira appeal. More surprisingly the Federal Court allowed on 4th March the striking out of the Judy Pereira appeal, which decision was clearly wrong in law and in fact.

It should be remembered that the Fitnah II appeal is a matter of great public interest. The court must be candid and transparent in managing the Fitnah II appeal.

The Malaysian public has a right to fullest disclosure pertaining to this appeal.

We hereby call upon the Chief Registrar of the CoA to disclose the reasons for the hurried fixing of the Fitnah II appeal dates.

As Putrajaya prepares to fight the acquittal of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (pic) on a sodomy charge in the Court of Appeal tomorrow, two human rights groups have called for the dismissal of the case, saying it was “politically motivated”.

Suaram and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) urged the court to dismiss Putrajaya’s appeal, saying that it was motivated to dampen the “serious political challenge” the federal government had experienced since Independence.

“The prosecution has expedited proceedings in an apparent attempt to prevent Anwar Ibrahim from running for the post of Menteri Besar of Malaysia's richest and most populous state,” Suaram executive director Yap Swee Seng said in a statement today.

The NGOs also drew attention to Anwar’s candidacy in the Kajang by-election and bid to become the next Selangor Menteri Besar, noting that an unfavourable court decision would mean an end to Anwar’s plans.

“If the Court of Appeal upholds the prosecution’s appeal, it could immediately sentence Anwar to a jail term which would result in his inability to run in the by-election,” the statement read.

Nominations for the by-election have been fixed for March 11 while polling will be on March 23.

Political analysts have said Anwar was walking a tightrope by contesting the Kajang state seat with the sodomy case still hanging over his head.

The sodomy offence which Anwar had been accused of carries a jail term of up to 20 years and whipping.

Under the law, an MP or assemblyman who is jailed for a year or more and slapped with a fine of RM2,000 or more will be disqualified.

In 2012, the High Court acquitted Anwar of a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan at a Desa Damansara condominium unit in Bukit Damansara in 2008, based on tainted DNA evidence presented by the prosecution.

Umno lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is to lead the prosecution team in the appeal proceedings, which begins tomorrow.

On March 4, the Federal Court allowed Putrajaya’s application to strike out the notice of appeal filed by Anwar to recall the investigating officer in his sodomy case – former Superintendent Jude Blacious Pereira – as a witness.

Anwar had also failed in his three attempts to remove Shafee as the prosecutor. He had first challenged the legality of Shafee’s appointment under the Criminal Procedure Code but this was dismissed by the Federal Court on November 20.

His second application to disqualify Shafee, based on a statutory declaration (SD) by former Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim, was also dismissed by the Federal Court on February 11.

Anwar filed the third application on February 25 to disqualify Shafee on grounds that the senior lawyer was not a fit and proper person to accept the appointment as he was found guilty of violating the Legal Profession Publicity Rules 2001 and this, too, was struck out on March 3.

International NGO Human Rights Watch had previously urged Putrajaya to drop its appeal against Anwar’s acquittal. It had also noted that the attack on Anwar was politically motivated.